There have been many attempts to keep beverage or food dispensers cold for a sufficient period of time. In particular, beverage kegs such as beer kegs require to remain cold for a long period of time. Such kegs are typically chilled in ice baths in washtubs, trash barrels, or the like. These chilling methods are usually messy, unsightly, and require substantial storage space.
Several cooling storage shells that have been specifically designed to keep a keg cold, also contain rigid and inflexible parts, such as rigid bottom floors or sidewalls to encase a keg in ice. As such they share the same problems as above-mentioned washtubs or trash barrels with regard to size, expense and availability.
Other cooling storage shells that are collapsible contain many different parts and therefore, tend to have high manufacturing cost. Furthermore, these collapsible cooling shells, with thin walls, are not as efficient as the rigid shells and permit heat transfer to occur at a fast rate.
Thus, there is a need for a flexible and yet inexpensive and thermally efficient cooling storage shell that permits a keg to remain cold for a long period of time.